I'm making a custom replacement logic board for the iBook G3 clamshell :)

[lazd]

Good to know, I will cancel my order

How thick were they approx? Because the specs on #2 said it should be 5mm thick which is the same as the samsung display.

I can’t recall but I know the size vertically was the biggest issue, it made the bottom corners of the display prevent the case from snapping shut, even after I removed the metal housing from the display and bent/cut the frame inside of the lid to accommodate for it.

 

[B S Magnet]

Hi DiTBho,

The IBM display seems obscure but the other ones have some detailed specs on PanelLook.com, you can use the tool to find some decent brighter xga displays that have wled backlights. Amazon has a few too that are 12.1 in and 1024x768 that would likely fit made by VSDisplay. I’ve ordered one for mine since the cathode backlight is getting very weak on mine.

LCD Cable - IBM, Apple part number922-5087
TFT Panel - IBM 03L5040 (BL P/N:03L5090)

LCD Cable - LG, Apple part number 922-5368
TFT Panel - LG LP121SA (A2QT)

LCD Cable - Samsung, Apple part number 922-4769
TFT Panel - Samsung LT121SU-123

As noted elsewhere, the commonality of displays (and matching cables) for the clamshells is Samsung was reported to be a plurality or a majority of all produced, followed by IBM, and lastly, LG.

Of the several iBook clamshells to come into my possession over the years, all but one was supplied with the Samsung combination. The other was IBM (in an indigo 366).

At least, with respect to OEM display performance, discolouration, as both backlight phosphors and anti-glare protecting laminate, plagued the Samsung displays (pinkish when display was newly powered on, yellowing in the laminate, etc.). The IBM display had an issue with occasional stuck/failed pixels appearing over time, but otherwise maintaining colour integrity and luminosity better than the Samsungs.

All LG displays I’ve used have come from post-clamshell iBooks, PowerBooks, and MacBook Pros; at minimum, these were at least XGAresolution or greater. This includes the LG XGA display which, ultimately, went into my key lime 466.

 

[DiTBho]

For the sensor-pad ... I think that it should be removed, disassembled, and replaced with a laptop PC version, which behaves exactly as per the data sheet

Alternatively you have to sniff the data line, and... analyze what it throws out.

I did a similar thing for a VGA-2-USB card, and it took me about a year in my spare time ...

 

[sircastor]

I'm typing from Brazil and my dream is also to make my clamshell usable, I search the entire internet for ways to do this and my two options are to use a smartphone logic board with LOTS of adaptations or a Raspberry board with some adaptations, you actually finished this project successfully and I congratulate you for it, I hope it helps me make my dream come true. I have a question for you, could you use a logic board from the Orange Pi 5 Plus? I'm thinking about changing the screen for a 12.1-inch 1400 x 1050 resolution from the Thinkpad X60/61/62. I would definitely buy your modification projects involving the Ibook G3 Clamshell and I'm looking forward to it. Sorry if I wrote something wrong, I'm using Google translate.

I'm curious if you had gotten to this. I came across the HV121P01-101 - which I think is the display from the X61. It's dimensions are a good match for the iBook, being just a bit thicker (6.7mm vs 5.5mm for the Samsung)

There are a few posts (including here) that say this display will fit in a G4 iBook (I don't know that anyone's tried a G3 Snow iBook). It's promising. If I can manage to get my iBook working, I'm gonna give it a shot. My goal is to permanently move my iBook to modern technology, but keep the look and feel.

 

[DiTBho]

any progress?

 

[Bug-Creator]

There are a few posts (including here) that say this display will fit in a G4 iBook

I did try that with my 1.33GHz 12" and all I got is an extremely hot display cable.
These are known to work with the 12" PowerBooks, so either iBooks are different or the display is faulty (which I can't check easily).

 

[naujoks]

Pleeeeeease! The years are going by! I want this! I need this! Any update?

 

[Rikintosh]

Why not simply use a 12-inch iPad and adapt a Bluetooth keyboard?

I mean, I'm working on something similar, trying to save an HP HDX9400 that had a dead motherboard. This kind of adaptation is complex, you need a charge controller for a battery, you need a module to control the keyboard (in fact, you first need to figure out what the keyboard matrix is, and then write a program on a Teensy module, Arduino or something like that), you would also need to adapt the screen and that is a terrible idea. The original screen has a terrible viewing angle, contrast, resolution, and today, being 25 years old or more, it is a time bomb for vinegaring (deterioration of the glue of the polarizing film), which is a very delicate additional work and with a high chance of damaging the display during the process.

From my point of view, the ideal is to replace the display with a modern display, and one that is still in production. The ThinkPad X61 screens have good viewing angle and contrast, but they are hard to find, as is the X61 itself.

Unfortunately, 4:3 screens disappeared from retail many years ago. What exists today is aimed at the industrial market and costs a fortune. The closest thing to this format is the screens of tablets like the iPad.

 

[lazd]

Why not simply use a 12-inch iPad and adapt a Bluetooth keyboard?

I mean, I'm working on something similar, trying to save an HP HDX9400 that had a dead motherboard. This kind of adaptation is complex, you need a charge controller for a battery, you need a module to control the keyboard (in fact, you first need to figure out what the keyboard matrix is, and then write a program on a Teensy module, Arduino or something like that), you would also need to adapt the screen and that is a terrible idea. The original screen has a terrible viewing angle, contrast, resolution, and today, being 25 years old or more, it is a time bomb for vinegaring (deterioration of the glue of the polarizing film), which is a very delicate additional work and with a high chance of damaging the display during the process.

From my point of view, the ideal is to replace the display with a modern display, and one that is still in production. The ThinkPad X61 screens have good viewing angle and contrast, but they are hard to find, as is the X61 itself.

Unfortunately, 4:3 screens disappeared from retail many years ago. What exists today is aimed at the industrial market and costs a fortune. The closest thing to this format is the screens of tablets like the iPad.

I understand getting hung up on old, low-resolution 4:3 12.1" displays can make the project feel like a non-starter, but there are more creative ways to solve this. I was able to fit a N123NCA-GS1 12.3Inch eDP 1920x1280 display in there and simply chop off the edges of the display that are outside viewable area in software, then added a black strip above it to fill the unused space, then nestled a little webcam and microphone into it. It's not flawless, but it's bright, crisp, and now I have a webcam too!

I also considered the X61 displays, but LVDS is annoying and my board already had eDP with working brightness controls, so it was an obvious choice.

In my opinion, shoving an iPad into an iBook like that butcher SkipRetro does is sacrilegious. You can use a Teensy to talk to the keyboard and trackpad, you can put a new display in it, you can retool the stock batteries to work with whatever you want to power, and you can do all this without chopping up the case -- that's what I did. It's not clean like what Smashcat was working on, I never ended up designing a custom logic board for it, but it runs macOS Sonoma and has 3 hours of battery life on only 4 18650 cells in the stock battery pack.

Hacking up this beautifully designed vintage computer to turn it into a glorified iPad case is lazy and uncreative.

 

[Rikintosh]

I understand getting hung up on old, low-resolution 4:3 12.1" displays can make the project feel like a non-starter, but there are more creative ways to solve this. I was able to fit a N123NCA-GS1 12.3Inch eDP 1920x1280 display in there and simply chop off the edges of the display that are outside viewable area in software, then added a black strip above it to fill the unused space, then nestled a little webcam and microphone into it. It's not flawless, but it's bright, crisp, and now I have a webcam too!

I also considered the X61 displays, but LVDS is annoying and my board already had eDP with working brightness controls, so it was an obvious choice.

In my opinion, shoving an iPad into an iBook like that butcher SkipRetro does is sacrilegious. You can use a Teensy to talk to the keyboard and trackpad, you can put a new display in it, you can retool the stock batteries to work with whatever you want to power, and you can do all this without chopping up the case -- that's what I did. It's not clean like what Smashcat was working on, I never ended up designing a custom logic board for it, but it runs macOS Sonoma and has 3 hours of battery life on only 4 18650 cells in the stock battery pack.

Hacking up this beautifully designed vintage computer to turn it into a glorified iPad case is lazy and uncreative.

Yes, I'm also against playing the butcher, but it seems to me that people want to use it in their daily lives, but without much work to modify it.

Your solution for the display was brilliant.

 

[sircastor]

Why not simply use a 12-inch iPad and adapt a Bluetooth keyboard?

I mean, I'm working on something similar, trying to save an HP HDX9400 that had a dead motherboard. This kind of adaptation is complex, you need a charge controller for a battery, you need a module to control the keyboard (in fact, you first need to figure out what the keyboard matrix is, and then write a program on a Teensy module, Arduino or something like that), you would also need to adapt the screen and that is a terrible idea. The original screen has a terrible viewing angle, contrast, resolution, and today, being 25 years old or more, it is a time bomb for vinegaring (deterioration of the glue of the polarizing film), which is a very delicate additional work and with a high chance of damaging the display during the process.

From my point of view, the ideal is to replace the display with a modern display, and one that is still in production. The ThinkPad X61 screens have good viewing angle and contrast, but they are hard to find, as is the X61 itself.

Unfortunately, 4:3 screens disappeared from retail many years ago. What exists today is aimed at the industrial market and costs a fortune. The closest thing to this format is the screens of tablets like the iPad.

If anyone is interested, I have recently done the work of reverse engineering the keyboard matrix (standing on the shoulders of other adventurers). Details are here, as well as at my website as I'm engaged in my own modernization of an iBook. (Incidentally, If anyone doesn't feel like doing the heavy lifting, I should have a custom PCB done in the next couple of weeks - mine runs on an RP2040 and incorporates the Trackpad, keyboard, trackpad button, power button, and lid switch.)

The display I bought (but haven't tested yet) is a HYDIS HV121P01-100. It's supposedly the same one they used in the Thinkpads. 1400x1050. It's an LVDS interface, and I don't yet have any kind of controller for it - nor do I have a circuit to drive the backlight. This is a bit thicker than the stock display in the iBook, so I'm not sure if it'll fit or not...